Doppelganger
by Darkwalk12
Summary: Some people get their identities stolen by doppelgangers. Or clones. Either way, Jack isn't happy.


**Doppelganger**

 _'A strange thing happened this morning. I looked in the mirror and saw myself!'_

Weird occurrences did not wait for bad luck or stormy nights. In fact, since there was more sun in Jasper Nevada than rain, strange things tended to happen on pleasant days that looked quite normal. There were no mornings full of frustrations leading up to it. There were no accidents of knocking objects over, errors with the computers or even an abundance of traffic to get through. Everything was calm, ordinary, and peaceful.

So of course, the strangeness came out of the blue with no warning.

" **How close to base?** " Bumblebee chirred in worry, glancing at the radar on the screen. Strange colored waves appeared faintly in one particular spot before disappearing, like a sea creature surfacing only to dive again. The pattern had started only a moment ago.

Sighing, Ratchet set a heavy servo on the yellow bot's shoulder plate, "It's a good hundred miles at least, so quite that." The medic turned back to the computer terminal with a scowl. "I believe it's ground bridge radiation that's distorted for some reason. But I can't say for certain because my equipment is glitching. Again."

He gave the keys a hard tap and muttered under his breath, "Stupid earth tech."

"Then we will investigate with caution." Sighed Optimus, peering over the shorter mech's shoulder to study the strange waves. "Arcee, Bumblebee, we will take a look. Bulkhead..."

Tipping his helm in a nod toward where the children were playing video games, the Prime raised an optic ridge in a silent order. Bulkhead, seated on a crated behind the raised platform, chuckled and moved a legs to block the stairs. "Bot only mission. Got it."

"Hey!" Miko looked up from the race, controller hanging loosely in her hands, "Doc said weird radiation. Who knows what'll happen if I go near that... wait." It suddenly occurred to the girl that maybe interesting things could happen, like gaining superpowers or a bot-con fight. Her guardian rumbled an amused warning.

"Miko..."

Loud cheering from the game distracted her again as Rafael ran her car off the road. "Hey, no fair!"

"Keep your eyes on the screen." The twelve year old retorted, sticking his tongue out and jerking the controller up as he rounded the curve.

Before the transfer student could try to follow them, Optimus opened the ground bridge and went through, his team following. The cool air of the base was replaced with a hot and dry wind. Sand, gravel, and crab grass crunched underfoot as the three took in their surroundings. Red stone plateaus rose to the atmosphere like steps in the distance, flat land stretching out into the desert. There were birds chirping and shrieking as they hopped from plant to plant in search of bugs. Nothing looked out of place.

Bee tipped his helm and watched a lizard dart under a large boulder. " **Maybe there isn't anything and it's just the computer?** "

"Hmm. Perhaps." The leader of the Autobots slowly scanned the area, "Spread out."

They did, searching in nooks and crannies among the rocks. Jumping and climbing up to a high point, Arcee crouched on a stone boulder and peered as far around as she could, "If there is something or someone causing this, they're good at hiding." She hopped down to join the others on the ground.

A call from the base made them pause. Ratchet's tone was concerned, "Those waves are picking up. Anything?"

"Negative." Optimus replied, expression deepening into a frown.

But the Prime was proved wrong almost as soon as he spoke. Flickers of green flashed into existence and disappeared like fireflies, growing more abundant by the second until the light swirled into a gaping vortex. A high pitched keening noise reverberated from the disturbance as jagged violet flashed. Everyone drew their blasters and readied them to fire in case Decepticons came through. Ratchet's voice on the comms was almost drowned out by the roar of the unstable bridge. "The energy is spiking!"

As the whirling light grew to it's brightest, a human boy fell through, his right arm outstretched as if he'd just been holding something only seconds ago. The bridge closed and dissipated as he landed on his feet.

Brushing his dark hair out of his face, Jack rubbed his face and sighed. The bots gaped and stared in astonishment, noting the bandage on his arm and scuffed dark gray jacket with the sleeves rolled up. A white shirt poked out at the collar. Darby looked up to notice them and his blue eyes grew wide.

"Oh scrap!"

"Jack!" Arcee was torn between being concerned or furious (and she wasn't sure she could be furious until she knew what exactly was going on). Whirring his confusion, Bumblebee looked at their leader to see what he was going to do.

Ratchet grew impatient with the radio silence, "What happened? What's going on out there?"

Green light flashed again, fainter than before as another ground bridge opened. Oddly, this one looked exactly like the first but seemed transparent, as if it were only an echo of the first one. Colors and lights shimmered as Miko fell out of the bridge. Her left arm was out, fingers curled as if she'd been holding something, possibly Jack's hand as his had been out towards her. The scene was so strange, that the Cybertronians just reset their optics. Jack, however, wasn't so surprised.

"Miko!" He snarled, lunging at her. The Japanese transfer student lurched out of his way and stumbled over her own boots.

With dirt-covered jeans and pink dyed hair starting to loosen from the ties, Miko scoffed at him, "Will you take a chill pill already?"

"Take a chill pill?! This isn't funny!" The boy yelled, making another grab for her. Oddly, he seemed to be after some small object she was clutching in her right hand. It was hard to tell what it was, hidden behind her painted fingers. Skipping out of range, Miko seemed not to have yet noticed they had an audience. Optimus frowned deeply before raising his voice.

"Children! That is enough. Behave yourselves."

The both of them froze, looking up. Jack gestured at the bots and raised a furious eyebrow at Miko while her hazel eyes widened. She stared at them before flicking her eyes to Jack and then back at the bots. Arcee sighed and commed base. "It was our ground bridge malfunctioning. Jack and Miko came through."

Tension filled silence echoed down the line and Bumblebee tipped his helm when the two teens before them paled at Arcee's words. Ratchet spoke up hesitantly.

"That's impossible. Miko is right here." The girl herself spoke on the comms even as the bots watched what looked like Miko in front of them.

"I'm not running through the ground bridge unless Bulk is there." Quieter in the background, the Autobots could hear her asking Raf to clarify that Jack was still at work. All three bots in the desert turned to look at the two humans. Grimacing, the girl put her hands behind her back and started inching towards Not-Jack.

With a very frustrated look upon his face and mouth twisted into a furious line, Not-Jack reached behind Not-Miko's back and grabbed whatever object she'd been holding. "Don't let go this time." He growled.

"Hey!"

Arcee started to yell at the same time as Bumblebee, " **Wait-** "

Moving forward, Optimus missed the children as another strange ground bridge opened up, swallowing the teens in light as they took a step back. They vanished just as his servos brushed the space where they'd been. None of the Autobots had been fast enough to stop the humans from disappearing.

Giving voice to what they were all thinking, Bumblebee buzzed and dropped his wings, " **What the Pit just happened?!** "

"I do not know." The Prime studied the empty ground where Jack and Miko had been standing only a moment ago. "Ratchet, bridge us back to base."

His command was met with no answer but a normal-looking ground bridge opened up and when the Autobots returned to base they found it almost exactly as they'd left it. Raf still sat on the couch but the game was long forgotten. Arms crossed and a mulish expression on his face, Bulkhead stood right next to the railing with Miko. Her hands were on her hips and as soon as the bots came through the bridge, she piped up loudly.

"I'm not getting in trouble for something I didn't do and I didn't run after you guys!"

"She's been right here boss." Her guardian added.

Ratchet joined in uneasily, "I hate to say this but she's telling the truth. I would've noticed the bridge opening again." Sighing at this news, Optimus rubbed his forehelm. Exchanging looks, Bumblebee and Arcee shrugged and shook their helms. What the Pit had they just seen in the desert?

"Are you sure it was Jack and Miko?" Ratchet continued, bewildered by the events.

The blue femme took a seat on a crate and put her empty palms up, "Jack showed up first and then Miko appeared. They were fighting over something that Miko had."

" **She was dressed differently. The one in the desert had long pants on, not shorts.** " Bumblebee suddenly straightened, realizing there were differences, " **The shirt was a pink, not green and blue.** "

"It's too hot for long pants right now." Raf frowned before translating what Bee had said for Miko.

The girl wrinkled her nose. "That sounds like one of my outfits. But I haven't worn it recently. This is really weird." Rumbling lowly, Bulkhead agreed.

Ratchet hummed in thought, "Well,... what do we do about this now?" This entire experience was out of his league and the medic wasn't sure where to go from here. He looked at Optimus, as everyone else did. The lanky blue and red mech sighed. Just because he was Prime didn't mean he knew everything. Occasionally he got stuck too.

In the end, they just waited for Jack to show up. In the two hours that they waited for him to get off work, the base was abnormally quiet. No one was in the mood for video games anymore. Raf seemed to be researching something on the internet and Miko just listened to her ipod while the bots conferred silently over the comm links. When the teen did show up, his mother drove into base and let him out of her car before heading to the kitchen to restock the fridge. June only gave a passing wave to the bots as she went by, intent on finishing the job before coming back to chat.

Jack headed toward the bots and immediately slowed as he noticed the tense atmosphere. "Hey...what's up?"

He was not wearing a dark gray jacket or white shirt. In cooler clothing due to high temperatures, the younger Darby was wearing a teal tee-shirt, showing off an arm that was not bandaged or injured. Brushing his dark hair out of the way, Jack looked back and forth between everyone suspiciously.

While the bots paused, unsure of what to say, Miko jumped in with obvious delight. "We got our identities stolen by doppelgangers. Or clones."

"Haha. Real funny." He snorted before turning to his guardian, "What really happened?"

Lips thinning and trying not to wince, the femme shrugged, "Erm... that, actually."

* * *

Nearly two months later, when the weather had drifted into slightly cooler temps, the entire incident had mainly been forgotten. With no clues and nothing for them to go with, the bots and kids had gotten tired of coming up with wild conspiracy theories and had moved on. Although Bumblebee and Raf's theory that the Decepticons had made clones of the kids for infiltration had been quite entertaining, there were everyday matters to attend to.

Such as relics and artifacts. The discovery of one such item had everyone quite excited.

"Ep ep ep! Don't touch!" Ratchet swatted at Bumblebee's servos as the scout reached out to poke the large bronze-colored rod that lay on the examination table.

Huffing, the yellow mech slouched back and flipped his doorwings up in a rude manner. He wasn't going to damage the artifact. He just wanted to see what if felt like. Brows furrowing as he stood by the guardrail, Raf studied the object. "So, what does it do?"

The medic sighed, annoyed that everyone was gathered around in eagerness. It was making it harder for him to study the artifact. "Unknown."

"It looks quite like Vector Prime's staff." Optimus mused slowly, optics roving over the crystal inlay and the dark orb set at the uppermost point. Pausing with one tool in his hand, Ratchet glanced over at the Prime with a startled look.

"Vector Prime's..."

"There was a statue of him and the staff outside the Hall of Records." Continued the tallest mech.

Bulkhead perked up, "The one in the plaza, right? I saw that once."

"Hmm, It does look remarkably similar. Do you know if the actual staff of Vector Prime was kept in the Archives?" Examining the inlay, Ratchet bent closer to get a better look. Creeping slowly forward, the kids hopped onto the table and stood on their tiptoes to see over the orange and white medic's arm. Miko almost fell over but caught herself by grabbing Raf by his shoulder. He steadied her and looked over to see if Ratchet had noticed. He hadn't. Jack, wearing his new gray jacket, gave them both a wary look as if to say 'that was close'.

"I... cannot say for certain." Optimus answered, "It would not surprise me if it was."

"So who's Vector Prime?" Raf had to ask. When he realized the children were on the table, Ratchet looked up with a scowl.

Miko scoffed. "A Prime, duh."

"He was one of the original Thirteen." The Autobot leader explained patiently.

"The guys who fought Unicron." Clarified Jack, looking back at the staff with a new curiosity.

Sighing harshly, the medic set his tools down with a thunk. He wasn't going to get anywhere until everyone stopped distracting him. Maybe if he answered their questions, the whole lot of them would get bored and wander off. Unlikely, but still possible.

"Yes. Vector Prime himself was said to be able to influence time among other things." Ratchet admitted gruffly.

Arcee turned to him startled, "You believe that? I thought you didn't believe in most of those legends."

A blunt shrug, "I don't, without evidence. But if anyone could figure out how to manipulate time, it _would_ be the ancients." They all turned to stare at the seemingly innocent staff on the table. Under the high fluorescent lights, it looked like an old ornate rod that had seen better days.

" **What are the patterns on it? They look like glyphs.** " Bumblebee whirred curiously.

"Crystal inlay. Those are ancient glyphs that translate to poems about Primus and the beginning of Cybertron." Optimus sighed, tracing one digits over the curves delicately. Sometimes he still missed working with records and relics in the Archives.

Scooting around the boys, Miko stepped closer to the object and crouched to get a better look, "What's the thing at the top? It looks like glass." She gestured at the dark translucent orb.

"I don't think they'd use something that fragile." Tossed in Raf solemnly.

Ratchet leaned back to grab another tool, a scanner so he could figure out what the orb was actually made of. "I don't know but I agree with Rafael. If it is glass, it's very durable to have lasted this long." The second he wasn't looking, Miko took another few steps forward and reached out to touch the top of the staff.

Jack reacted before anyone else. "Miko, don't!"

Too late, she's already closed one of her hands around it. Just as Jack grabbed her elbow, a brilliant green and purple light flashed. The air snapped. Lurching back in surprise, everyone was blinded. Mere seconds later the light was gone and with it, Jack and Miko.

"What the Pit?!" Roared Arcee, optics widened as much as they could.

She slammed a servo down on the table, digits running across the metal where the children should have been standing. But now only the Esquivel kid was on the table, pale and trembling at the sudden shock. The relic lay as it was but without the orb.

"They just...they just disappeared!" Bulkhead mumbled before turning to Ratchet who stood there slack jawed, "Bring them back Doc!"

"I don't know how to do that! I don't even know what happened!"

While the yelling picked up, a sudden thought had the Prime raising a servo to quiet the others, "Miko was wearing a pink shirt, I believe."

"What does that have to do with anything?!" Their medic turned on him incredulously, thinking that Optimus had lost his processor.

"Wait, he's right!" Arcee caught on and jerked her helm up. "And Jack was wearing a dark jacket. They're wearing the same clothes as they were months ago when we saw them appear in the desert, with the weird ground bridges."

Silence as they digested the news. Bumblebee spoke what they were all thinking, wings flickering back and forth in distress, " **So... they actually went back in time? That's what we saw before?** "

Everyone looked at one other, wanting to say yes but afraid that they might be wrong. Or right.

Luckily, a sharp crack saved them from having to answer. Color splintered into the room and several feet away, an unstable ground bridge opened. Yelping, Miko and Jack fell out and landed on their hands and knees. The vortex faded out behind them.

"Miko!" Bulkhead exclaimed, rushing forward to make sure she was alright the same moment that Arcee moved to help Jack stand.

Breathing heavily, the dark-haired teen held one clenched hand up to Ratchet, "Hide this. Or destroy it, I don't care. Just don't let her touch it again!" Covered in dust and scrapes, Jack carefully set the orb in the medic's palm. "There's an inset on the side. Do NOT push that down."

"Did you guys seriously go back in time?!" Raf called from his perch up on the table. Ratchet gently set the orb in a box and locked the lid, making sure to hand it to Optimus who took it gravely.

Jack merely groaned as Miko started to laugh, a tiny bit hysterical and very much exhilarated, "Dude, that was the craziest thing ever!" She threw her arms up and punched the air.

"I'm going to kill you."

Rolling hazel eyes at her friend's exhausted threat, the girl started to fix her pigtails, "You're just pissy 'cause you got shot at."

"What! Who shot at you? Where- I mean, when, did you guys go?" Arcee crouched by the boy as he sat cross-legged on the ground and picked at the tan bandages wrapped around his forearm. A slow dead-tired blink before Jack just shook his head and settled his face in his hands.

"Some bandits. And we stole a horse because they were chasing us. Did you know Jack can ride horses? We probably would've been dead if he hadn't thought of doing that." Smiling from ear to ear, the Japanese girl held up a beaded necklace, "And look at this! It's kinda tribal, so totally not my style but it is kinda cool, right? An old Shoshone woman gave it to me 'cause I helped her carry some baskets of vegetables. And before that there was this really old looking train-"

"Jack, are you alright?" Optimus questioned softly, taking in the boy's slumped shoulders and closed eyes. "Do you need Ratchet to check on that wound?"

There was a long tense pause before Darby lifted his head to deadpan, "It took us a couple tries to get back here. I'm really tired. After Ratchet looks at my arm, I'm taking a nap."

"Oh right! We saw you guys last jump! We were close but it wasn't the right day." Miko added. "Jack's fine. He just has no sense of fun and adventure." A hiss answered her.

"I prefer my adventures in the right century. The one I'm supposed to be in."

Jack untied the bandage and let Ratchet take a look at the long scratch on his arm. Deeming it fine, after the bandage was switched out, the medic suggested the teen get some well deserved rest. One suspicious blue eye locked on the box. "Don't let her near it."

"Not gonna happen." Bulkhead agreed readily, making sure he was right next to Miko.

Another eye roll as she huffed and crossed her arms. "You know what I just realized?"

"What?" Arcee narrowed her optics. She was not happy with the girl right now. Her charge had been in danger and she hadn't been there all because Miko had to get touchy with an artifact.

Ignoring the snappish tone, Miko grinned, "There were no doppelgangers. We stole our own identities."

"That doesn't even make any sense." Raf's face wrinkled in confusion.

Shaking his head and fed up with the entire day, Jack shook his head and shakily got up to amble toward the couch. A long nap was calling. But halfway up the stairs, he turned around and called to the source of the day's frustrations. "You want to see a doppelganger?"

"Yeah?" she replied easily.

"Go look in a mirror. It's much easier than going back in time."


End file.
